olaid paper watermarked "J WHATMAN" with a vertical crease down its centre

Inscription

sheet, verso

“No2 Lake of Albano / Evening Sun behind the trees on the left / hand/ July the 10th. 1781 / Francis Towne” in brown ink, and elsewhere, “A Copy of this painted on canvass the same size for James Curtis Esq. 1784.”

Provenance

Bequeathed by the artist in 1816 to James White of Exeter (1744–1825), on whose death it passed to Towne’s residuary legatee John Herman Merivale (1779–1844) and his successors. Merivale’s granddaughters Maria Sophia Merivale (1853–1928) and Judith Ann Merivale (1860–1945), both of Oxford, inherited the drawing in May 1915 (BP23). In 1933 Judith Merivale sold it for £6 10s. to Squire Gallery, where in February 1934 it was bought by Leonard Duke (1889–1971) for 16½ guineas (no.D105). Duke sold the drawing to Nigel Warren QC (1912–1967) for £200 in November 1955, and it was sold, probably by his heirs, at Christie’s on 6 June 2002, lot 9, for £26,290 (including fees) to a US private collector, who retained it until 2014, when it was acquired by Lowell Libson Ltd.